(1) Adopting a redshift z=0.003856 (Tifft and Cocke 1988, ApJS, 67, via NED) for the host galaxy NGC 3631, a good match is found with SN 2004gq (Modjaz et al. 2014, AJ, 147, 99), 7-10 days before the maximum light.
The early phase is supported by the high velocity expansion (about 16800 km/s) for the HeI 587.6 nm absorption.

Based on AFOSC multi-band imaging, we measured the following apparent AB magnitudes: u=18.87(0.03) mag, g=17.66(0.02) mag, r=17.50(0.03) mag, i=17.49(0.03) mag, z=17.59(0.02) mag. Given the galaxy distance modulus (30.41 mag via NED) the absolute magnitude turns out to be -12.9 mag in r-band, at the very faint end of the Ib luminosity function (Drout et al. 2011, ApJ, 741, 97) even considering the early phase.